Care Coordination: Transitions of Care

This process measure seeks to capture follow up after asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits for children with asthma after discharge from the ED, as recommended by the NHLBI 2007 guidelines. This measure assesses the percentage of asthma-related ED visits for children ages 3-21 with a follow-up visit with a primary care clinician or an asthma subspecialist within 14 days of discharge from the ED, within the reporting year, for patients who are enrolled in the health plan for two consecutive months following the ED visit. 

Number of rehospitalizations occurring within 30 days of discharge from an acute care hospital (prospective payment system (PPS) or critical access hospital (CAH)) per 1000 FFS Medicare beneficiaries at the state and community level by quarter and year.

This measure estimates the risk-standardized rate of unplanned, all-cause readmissions for patients (Medicare fee-for-service [FFS] beneficiaries) discharged from an Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) who were readmitted to a short-stay acute-care hospital or a Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), within 30 days of an IRF discharge. The measure is based on data for 24 months of IRF discharges to non-hospital post-acute levels of care or to the community.

A risk-adjusted readmission rate for each facility is calculated as follows:

This measure estimates the risk-standardized rate of unplanned, all-cause readmissions for patients (Medicare fee-for-service [FFS] beneficiaries) discharged from a Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) who were readmitted to a short-stay acute-care hospital or a Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), within 30 days of an LTCH discharge. The measure is based on data for 24 months of LTCH discharges to non-hospital post-acute levels of care or to the community.

A risk-adjusted readmission rate for each facility is calculated as follows:

Percentage of adult in-center hemodialysis patients in the facility whose average ultrafiltration rate (UFR) is >=13 ml/kg/hour AND who receive an average of <240 minutes per treatment during the calculation period.

The Discharge to Community measure determines the percentage of all new admissions from a hospital who are discharged back to the community alive and remain out of any skilled nursing center for the next 30 days. The measure, referring to a rolling year of MDS entries, is calculated each quarter. The measure includes all new admissions to a SNF regardless of payor source.

Percentage of home health stays in which patients who had an acute inpatient hospitalization in the 5 days before the start of their home health stay used an emergency department but were not admitted to an acute care hospital during the 30 days following the start of the home health stay.

Percentage of all patients transferred from an Emergency Department to another healthcare facility whose medical record documentation indicated that all required information was communicated (sent) to the receiving facility within 60 minutes of transfer For all data elements, the definition of ‘sent’ includes the following:
• Hard copy sent directly with the patient, or 
• Sent via fax or phone within 60 minutes of patient departure, or
• Immediately available via shared Electronic health record (EHR) or Health Information Exchange (HIE) (see definition below)

This measure assesses days spent in acute care within 30 days of discharge from an inpatient hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) to provide a patient-centered assessment of the post-discharge period. This measure is intended to capture the quality of care transitions provided to discharged patients hospitalized with AMI by collectively measuring a set of adverse acute care outcomes that can occur post-discharge: emergency department (ED) visits, observation stays, and unplanned readmissions at any time during the 30 days post-discharge.

The measure assesses days spent in acute care within 30 days of discharge from an inpatient hospitalization for HF to provide a patient-centered assessment of the post-discharge period. This measure is intended to capture the quality of care transitions provided to discharged patients who had a HF hospitalization by collectively measuring a set of adverse acute care outcomes that can occur post-discharge: emergency department (ED) visits, observation stays, and unplanned readmissions at any time during the 30 days post-discharge.